


The Siren and the Selkie

by Khemi



Series: Sea Salt [2]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Enemies to Lovers, Ghosts, M/M, Magic, Merstuck, Selkies, Sirens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 11:08:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7434642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khemi/pseuds/Khemi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Adelphos once had a Selkie ward, who he raised to be more than the world had decided the boy would ever be.</p><p>The Mer fell for a man, but in another time the Selkie met his own destiny where the land and sea come together, following the song of an ancient power to a fate never meant for a creature Poseidon had forsaken.</p><p>Dave didn't find his place in the world. He carved it himself in ship-wreck driftwood, and the cold depths of a Siren's heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Siren and the Selkie

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is the sequel to [Sea Salt](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4253022/chapters/9625125) and while you can totally enjoy it again, I _really recommend_ you read the first fic, if you're able! It also follows [this Johnkat](http://khemi.tumblr.com/post/142932552917/hi-i-saw-that-you-were-taking-prompts-for), but how exactly it all fits in will be addressed later.
> 
>  
> 
> This fic has been in my mind for a while and I decided it was time to get it out there. I hope you enjoy it! In case it wasn't clear, Adelphos is Bro.

_ Brother, brother, I’m afraid, _ __  
_ For the ocean’s dark and empty, _ __  
_ I have no place but by your side, _ _  
_ ___And the world owes me no mercy._

_ Brother, brother, please don’t leave, _ __  
_ For the seas are wild and angry, _ __  
_ I cannot find my way to shore, _ _  
_ ___And the men there want to keep me._

 

It was summer, when the Mer found a pup floundering in the shallows, flippers torn and body shaking with the effort of trying to keep afloat. The blood would draw predators as quickly as it had drawn the son of Poseidon if it was left unchecked, and he knew without doubt that it  _ should  _ be.

This was no seal. He could taste the curse in the waters, and he knew it was a halfway, a damned creature which belonged on the sand just as little as it belong beneath the waves.

He  _ should  _ leave it to  _ die _ .

But it was young, and it had spirit. He watched from a distance as it struggled and fought its injuries, refusing to give in to the wounds when others would long since have fallen into a stupor. There was something admirable in that, a pup who hadn’t come to learn its own failings, who still fought a tide too strong to ignore forever.

There was something recognisable in it, something that made it less of an aberration and more simply a  _ child _ .

Predators would be upon it soon.

He felt pain in his chest at the thought, and understood then that he was doomed. He would have to hide it, he would have to  _ guard  _ it, keep it from his Sisters and beg for his Father’s mercy-

Yet he could not let this child die. He  _ would not  _ let this child die.

It squeaked pitifully when he finally emerged, shying away from his reaching hands. He cooed softly, murmured nothings to try and calm it, and when at last the Selkie’s struggle against its own wounds faded and its attempts to flee ceased, he cupped his hands around it and drew it close to him, marvelling at how small it was, how plain it seemed.

This child had not chosen its own fate, he knew, but perhaps it still had to power to  _ change  _ it.

“Hush now, young one. I will take you to safety.” He didn’t know if it understood, but in time, it would. He would teach it that, and so many other things. He would teach it to fight, to think, to be more than the world had decided. The reasons why were unimportant- selfish, perhaps. A rebellion. A quiet defiance.

This creature was meant to be worthless, but he would make it  _ mighty _ .

“I am Adelphos,” he told his new ward, gathering it in the crook of his arm and searching its feeble aura. A boy, alone, afraid- Blood and fire, a skin burned, a mother lost, a new guardian gained. “I am the brother. No matter what was meant for you, you will be adored,  _ beloved-  _ Know this, and be known, Dauid.”

Yes. The name would do.

Adelphos cast his senses out into the ocean to find a safe path to deeper waters. He dug his claws into the silt and sand and gathered ribbons of weeds, and wrapped Dauid’s sleek skin tight enough the blood was stilled, singing him soft songs of his people all the way down into the dark.

♆

In one of many springs, they swam.

“Dauid, if you cannot keep up I will leave you for the currents.”

Adelphos had no concept of patience; that had been the first lesson Dauid learned, long before he learned to speak or swim. There was no gentle introduction to anything when it came from the Brother.

“My tail isn’t like yours,” Dauid protested weakly, grasping a few of the rocky precipices they were gliding over to try and propel himself forward. “It’s not meant for moving like this!”

“It is meant to  _ swim,  _ and we are  _ swimming. _ ” Bubbles burst in his face with a particularly vengeful sweep of glittering gold, the graceful fins of the old Mer slicing through the water with effortless grace. “I cannot always protect you, and I will not leave you if you cannot even swim without me holding your paw in my hand. Come, quickly. I know you are capable of  _ better. _ ”

Adelphos swept out of sight in a burst of sparkling air, darting like an arrow through the water and striking just as true. Dauid chased his trail with hurried motions, muttering about his own bulky tail with an irritated flick of his whiskers that poorly masked the concern running cold in his blood. He had to keep up, to do  _ better.  _ After everything, he couldn’t let the brother down, couldn’t risk being left on another shore to bake in the sun-

With a growl he brought his hands up and grasped great handfuls of water between his webbing, pushing against the weight of the depths and feeling it shape over his sleek skin as he kicked and fought to keep a pace that should’ve been beyond him. This body was still fragile and new and he should’ve known better than to risk breaking it, but Adelphos wouldn’t give him that leniency and that meant he couldn’t give it to himself, he had to keep driving forward and further and praying he didn’t burst at him seams because of it.

Swimming with arms and a tail was different from swimming with flippers or legs; he’d never  _ considered  _ what a combination of the two might feel like, or that he’d ever be capable of it. Dauid sometimes wondered if he really wasn’t, if Adelphos was just using some of Poseidon’s gifts to gift him a power he didn’t deserve.

After all, the right to bear Poseidon’s fine features was only meant for the Mers. Even as Dauid grew more used to how it felt to float between the forms he’d known before, fear crept beneath the surface of his thoughts, the constant awareness that if he was discovered- if anyone  _ knew- _

Selkies weren’t meant to hold this magic. Nothing was meant to break their curse.

“Adelphos-!” Terror urged him the last distance as the worries rose to plague him, his reaching fingers parting the bubbles ahead of him once he was close enough they were in reach. His short claws found Adelphos’ tail in the flurry, a warning tug that had the Mer quickly twisting back on himself as they both came to a stop in ribbons of silver light and gold fins spread wide like sails.

“Is the body paining you?” The brother touched his longer, slender fingers to Dauid’s cheek, fine webbing rippling between them. “You have held it far longer than before. If you must succumb to your weakness, you may do so with a little pride, at least.”

Not for the first time, Dauid reminded himself the words weren’t meant to hurt him, that the differences between them carved an edge out of what was only meant to be blunt.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, but I can’t stop thinking-” He flinched, whiskers and ears dipping downwards. “If I’m seen like this- You know they already hate me, if they figure out what you did they’ll kill me or- or-”

“That will not happen while I am here to protect you.”

“You can’t protect me forever.”

“Then you will have to learn to protect yourself.” Adelphos frowned, his fangs briefly showing before he contained them and showed his displeasure instead in the ripple of light that fanned out across his speckled star-light freckles. “I have done what I can for you, I have prepared you for these waters, and I pray that you have  _ learned.  _ Poseidon is not kind to those who love the land, and your blood is forever cursed to linger between two worlds that do not want you- but there is a place for you, if you are willing to fight for it.”

“And if I’m not?” Old words, repeated over and over like the answer might change.

“Then you will die, Dauid, or some son of clay will burn your skin and make the choice in your place.”

The only reply was silence, as Dauid recoiled and fought the cold crawl in his flesh that threatened to tear his form apart and leave him a beast again in the place of his voice and his tight fists. Adelphos pulled away, looking his ward over slowly before he turned and swept slower into the current. “Come. You will keep up, again.”

“What if it’s not enough?”

“You will  _ keep up, _ ” the Mer repeated, ears flaring out and skin lighting with a warning blaze.

Dauid swallowed his fear and did.

♆

It was a winter, when the shore started calling.

Softly, at first, then endlessly louder, a song played through a clay-kiln pipe that ensnared Dauid’s senses and left him gazing away to distant sands, face turned up to a distorted sky and dark eyes turned fully black to mirror it within their depths.

“If you go, I cannot go with you,” Adelphos told him, one night when he could not rest and struggled to return beneath the waves after each lingering breath he claimed from the shivering surface.

“I cannot promise to be here when you return,” the brother muttered, on a day their sparring left Dauid bruised by each blow that slipped through his distracted defences. “My Sisters already speak of new waters- I cannot remain alone, even for you.”

_ Don’t go,  _ Dauid heard in the words, more pleading than Adelphos would ever let himself be seen. Perhaps it was just an optimistic delusion, perhaps it was genuine; no matter the truth, it could not drown out the shore. The song had grown demanding,  _ unforgiving,  _ beating constantly against Dauid’s thoughts no matter how he forced himself to focus on what remained around him.

He wasn’t strong enough to stay. Adelphos had tried so hard to steel him against this, but he knew he was going to fail, the certainty of his own weakness beating in his warm blood as he found himself spending more time with his head above the water and his face turned unconsciously towards the land Adelphos had purposefully stayed too far from to see.

“I’m sorry,” was the last thing he told the brother, struggling to keep his face the same as his body unravelled and the magic gave way, unable to resist the instincts that were tearing him apart. “I’m  _ sorry. _ ”

“May you find your place,” Adelphos answered, hesitating at the sight of Dauid’s true self, ugly and pointless, a beast who had masqueraded too long as one man and would soon pretend to be another. Despite the shame of it, Dauid found Adelphos still reached for him, ran soft palms over the curve of his head and pulled him in one last time to touch their foreheads together. “No- May you  _ make  _ your place, and may all others see you brazen in it.”

They didn’t say any further farewell. Adelphos followed him until the waters grew too shallow to be safe; then in a flash of gold the brother was gone, and the Selkie was alone.

He stumbled onto shore with shaking legs he could barely remember how to use, pathetic skin clutched in his speckled hands. The air was cold, and the beach was empty. Dauid buried his truth beneath rocks that smelled like sea salt, biting back tears and insults that sometimes slipped out below his breath, shaking his head between glances out to see like there might be gold still waiting between the waves.

There were lights in the distance, the sort hung by men who knew only the air to light their path when the night stole their sight. Dauid shivered and wrapped his arms around himself as he stared at them and wondered,  _ worried,  _ but there was no guidance to be had from the crash of the waves, or the low whistle of an unfamiliar breeze.

He started to walk.

♆

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are welcome and I'll do my best to reply to them all :)


End file.
